Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Party Games 8/54 The Australian Sex Party

With a name like the Australian Sex Party you know that they are after attention. Given the rather civil rights focused approach they take with their policies they could easily have chosen other less controversial names to go by. But the Sex Party they are, and they take pleasure in the name they have given themselves.

Their policies cover a wide range of issues but are not comprehensive. They mainly focus on ensuring personal freedom and allowing consenting adults to do what consenting adults want to do. On matters of technology they do well. Opposing mandatory data retention and internet filtering is how they initially got my attention. Easing up on censorship laws, and working to make them uniform across Australia works for me. They are pro gay marriage, pro women's choice for abortion, pro euthanasia, and want drug usage decriminalized and marijuana taxed.

They are also for a secular state. They want to ensure that public schools are free from religion which includes ending the school chaplains program. They also want to remove special tax exemptions for religions, which while something that should be done, they are pushing it in a way that seeks to be confrontational (given the likely response of religious groups, this may just be a matter of getting in first).

When it comes to sex itself, the areas they focus on are better treatment for those working in the sex industry, ensuring equal rights for LGBTIQ (that acronym keeps getting longer doesn't it), better access to sex education, and getting drugs that help with sexual dysfunction on the PBS.

They don't have a policy on the environment (the first party I've come across to lack this), refugees and immigration (again the first party not to have one), and the NBN, while I think that they'd be on the positive side of these issues, given that anyone getting elected will need to deal with these issues, it would be nice to see them state a position on these.